A tie-up between Yahoo and Alibaba would pose a challenge to eBay Inc. in
China, where Alibaba competes with the U.S.-based online auction leader through
Taobao.com, a consumer-focused auction site.

At the end of last year Yahoo said in its annual regulatory filing that
Softbank owned roughly a third of its Yahoo Europe and Yahoo Korea units.
Meanwhile Yahoo owns one-third of Yahoo Japan Corp., which is controlled by
Softbank Corp.

The reports follow the spectacular debut of Baidu.com Inc., a popular Chinese
Web search company, which had the best first-day performance of any initial
public offering by a foreign company on U.S. stock markets on Friday.

On Monday, China's version of Google, continued to shoot higher, gaining
another $21, or 17 percent, to $143.80.